Outside the Box: A comparison of new board games to the old classics

I’ve grown up playing the classic board games — Catan, Clue, the Game of Life — every family game night. But there are also newly released board games that the average person has never played or heard of. Even though nothing will compare to three-hour Monopoly games, I decided to try out two new board games.

AZUL

The Azul box had a captivating design of rows of intricate squares, influenced by Portuguese wall tiles called azulejos. The mix of vibrant colors and eight-page manual initially intimidated me, but once I forced myself to begin reading it was easy enough to understand.

The objective of the game is to gain as many points as possible. Each player gets an individual board that they can place their Scrabble-sized tiles on. Players gain points by selecting tiles to fill out rows on the left side of their board which they can then shift to the right side to connect tiles, similar to Connect 4.

Azul’s basic cycle of selecting, placing and shifting tiles made the learning process quick, and I got the hang of the game in just a few minutes.

The unique blue-black outline on the game boards mixed with the bright colors of the tiles was eye-catching, but didn’t excite me as much as seeing a brand new Monopoly board with a fresh color scheme and new properties to buy.

There is strategy involved, but the game is based more on the random assortment of tiles placed in the center than critical thinking. All players can see all tile options. If you have a strategy, everyone playing can tell by paying attention to what tiles you pick.

Though Azul was easy to understand and play, its slow pace and calming patterns made me feel more like I was passively watching a movie than interacting with friends. The small inch-by-inch tiles were easy to maneuver, but blended into the different boards, causing some confusion as to where they were located.

On a rainy day when you’re in the mood to sit at home and watch the raindrops fall, Azul is the game for you. But, it most definitely did not live up to the classics. 

SONARA

The warm reds and oranges and basic cactus designs of Sonara’s box were nothing like its contents. The 11-page instruction manual left me struggling to find the motivation to start reading — I found a Youtube video outlining the gameplay instead. 

Each player received five dime-sized wooden discs, and their own scoresheet and dry erase marker. A game board with raised edges and four sections sat in the middle of the table. 

The elevated rim of the board confused me until the man in the video explained that Sonara was the world’s first “flick and write game,” meaning we were about to flick the discs from the raised edges onto the board. 

After each player flicked all their tokens onto the board from their designated corner, we filled out our scoresheets according to what sections our pieces landed in. Similarly to bingo, the goal is to fill out as much of your scoresheet as possible.

Though it seems simple, Sonara involved strategy and on-the-spot thinking. The complex scoresheet was filled with four different sections, and the anticipation of seeing where the disc would end up already made it more exciting than Azul.

The mix of flicking tokens and writing on the scoresheet made for a nice change to the classics. The unknown of what was going to happen next kept every players’ eyes on the board. Sonara made games like Sorry and Risk feel repetitive.

It’s a game for both fun-lovers and strategic thinkers. Sonara’s originality as the first flick-and-write game makes me believe that it can live up to the legacy of the classics.